Gabriel’s first motorcyle ride was to….

My 6 year old has been interested in my motorcycle since I got it last year after some time away from bikes. He went from saying “I would like to ride when I’m older” to “I’m ready to ride when I get a helmet and gloves”.  I measure his head and order an XS full faced helmet and wait for a good opportunity. It was a nice day today and the 2nd child is due in a little over a week so I decided the time was right. We ran down to pick up some gloves and a jacket to complete the outfit.

He picks out some sunglasses too while we are there. I get him in his gear and he puts the glasses on. My wife and I say that he looks like Iceman from Top Gun. He’s thinking Iceman the superhero and starts posing.

Geared up and ready to head out.

Time for the fun. Two blocks out of the neighborhood and he’s yelling at me pretty intensely. I find the next drive and pull in. He looks worked up and about ready to cry. He’s not too sure about this and informs me that he’s walking back to the house. I tell him that I’ll give him a ride back the house if he really wants to go back. His reply “Let’s go to the next drive and then we can turn around”.

The “next drive” turns out to be a couple miles away after some easy curves. We hopped off and look around the parking lot a bit. I ask him if he wants to go back or does he want to drive out to his friend Isaac’s house (another 10miles from there). He decides that we should go there since we are having fun now.

We take the scenic way to Isaac’s house to find out they aren’t home.

Another decision to make, turn around or let’s go on to the next town to Sonic. His answer is “I want a grilled cheese and the toy”. We ride a bit farther into the next town without event but he’s seeming much more relaxed on the back of the bike. He’s looking around and is sitting up instead of leaning on me like when we started.

We take our gear off and see that we picked up 2 or 3 hitchhikers (tiny Praying Mantis).

Just hanging out waiting for some food.

He was feeling so happy that he was doing a crazy dance after this picture.

I make a quick call home to inform my wife that we are going to be longer than the quick ride around the block we said we were doing. We talk and finally finish up the food. We suit back up and start heading out. We are circling around back of Sonic to head out and I hear him yelling again. I think “Here we go again 20 miles from home”. I stop at the drive and ask him if he’s ok. “Yeah, I said BLAST OFF!! Now let’s go!!!”

We head back down some rough blacktop back roads and get back to our town. I start seeing this red and black glove in my right mirror. He’s just having a good time back there playing in the wind. I wish I could have got a picture of that but I promised my wife no picture taking in motion (she doesn’t like it when I do so I promised I wouldn’t with our son). I got to the twisties near our house and I hit them a bit faster this time.

Here he is after the ride.

He tells me “You went too fast in those curves”. I ask if it scared him. “No, you were just going too fast”.

We’ve been hanging out tonight and dad is his favorite person right now. I’m really glad he enjoyed it and now I need to get some good pants and boots on him. I didn’t want to go too overboard in case he hated it but I wanted to make sure that he had something.